Due to the rapid development of machining a component can be machined by more than one procedure when the same quality requirements can be met. In this case choosing the suitable procedure is a multi-objective optimization problem. One possible variant of the analysis is the calculation of the specific surface area or volume (Surface rate – SR; Material removal rate – MRR). If these parameters are calculated for only the machining time, a theoretical value is obtained because the actual time required for production is not considered. In this paper a comparative analysis is performed for five machining procedure versions. The cutting data with which the specified accuracy and surface quality are ensured were determined by cutting experiments. A comparative analysis is performed by machining the surfaces on the basis of these data, determining the actual times of production, comparing the results with the theoretical value. The surface is the bore of a gear wheel built into a transmission system and produced in mass production. In the paper the efficiency of material removal is analyzed in machining hardened surfaces when different machining procedures (grinding, turning) and different tools were applied. On the basis of the results a ranking was obtained for the hard machining procedures. The method can be extended to various surfaces and surface combinations.